'Tips for Jesus' mystery man strikes again — for $5,000
The $111.05 New York restaurant receipt includes a $1,000 tip and the words "god bless!" scrawled across it.
The handle @tipsforjesus is stamped next to an illegible signature.
In
recent weeks, similar tabs have popped up in restaurants from coast to
coast and even in Mexico, with tips of as much as $10,000 — all charged
to American Express.
On Sunday just after midnight, the
mysterious man surfaced again — this time in Fairfield, Conn. He left a
$5,000 gratuity on a $112 bill at the Seagrape, an eatery where college
kids drop by for cheap beers by the beach.
Tips for Jesus — an
Instagram account filled with photos documenting the tips — has more
than 54,000 followers. The account displays photos of smiling servers
holding receipts with outlandish gratuities on bills also tallied in Los
Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Phoenix and Ann Arbor, Mich. On
Twitter, Tips for Jesus has nearly 3,000 followers but no tweets.
The Instagram feed comes with the tagline, "Doing the Lord's work, one tip at a time."
Three
Manhattan restaurants were especially blessed the first weekend of
December. A waiter in the restaurant of the NoMad Hotel got a $7,000
tip, another at The Smith restaurant was left $3,500, and $1,000 went to
Aruj Dhawan, a 25-year-old fashion marketing student and immigrant from
India working at Bo's Kitchen & Bar Room.
Dhawan served three guests who walked in one recent Saturday evening.
Their order — a bourbon, a beer, an appetizer, a pork ragout and a pork chop — amounted to $111.05, plus $1,000 for the waiter.
When
they were gone, "Aruj approached me, handed me the receipt and said,
'Is this for real?'" said general manager Benjamin Cramer.
Again, before leaving, the tipster had snapped a photo of the waiter with the check and posted it on Instagram.
The
tipster also wrote his cellphone number at the bottom of the tab,
telling Cramer to call him if American Express had any issues with
processing the receipt.
Facebook
The man demanded anonymity, so Cramer did not pursue tracking his identity.
A
$1,000 tip also went to a waiter at the Hungry Cat in Los Angeles after
three men finished their dinner, said restaurant spokeswoman Jannis
Swerman. One of them stamped the check @tipsforjesus.
In another photo, a Phoenix bartender beams looking at his $2,500 tip.
"This
middle-aged gentleman came in with a woman, and they sat at the bar,"
says Micah Olson, the bartender at a restaurant called Crudo who served
them one of the most expensive whiskeys at $70 per ounce.
"They sat at the bar and had 5 ounces total," Olson says. "The guy was really cool and bought me two ounces."
The
man asked for the check — $530.67 — and paid with his Amex "Black
Card," an invitation-only charge card issued to affluent clients.
"When
they left, I saw the tip and I went, 'Wow!'" says the 35-year-old
bartender. "I hope one of these days, we'll find out who he is."
The mysterious stranger apparently knows some Spanish.
A
tab dated Dec. 5, 2013, from a resort in Punta Mita, Mexico, is posted
on Instagram with the comment, "Muchas gracias Carlos!" — meaning "many
thanks" to Carlos Mendez, a grinning young waiter holding a bill for
$158.11 with a tip of 13,100 Mexican pesos, or about $1,000.
One
day last week, "I saw him looking so happy, holding the check," said
Benito Robles, a concierge at the resort. "I asked him, 'Why are you
smiling?' and he showed me the tip."
Mendez went home to his wife and two kids in a nearby village and took some vacation, according to Robles.
Across
the land, restaurant servers are posting pleas on Instagram asking the
mysterious tipster to visit them, giving exact locations.
He's not the only one with a knack for generosity at the table.
Seth Collins, of Lexington, Ky., has been leaving $500 tips around the country — following his late brother's instructions.
Before Aaron Collins died last year, he gave his brother a mission: Eat, be merry and leave a giant tip.
Through his family, he's given away more than 80 tips throughout the U.S.
8 comments:
in Christ it could happen, because the christian community has donated a lot to the poor, but in Buddhist you probably will get zero from monk, they keep everything for themselves and save it for their family. I've never heard monk give their fortune to the poor, but only blessing with warm water in exchange for money donated by believer.
mi kundouy! haha
do your mother or sister or aunt or grand ma has one too ahahh
The guy only has $111.05 in his account...haha.
That is so wrong with some of our Khmer folks, instead of admiring those who have done the good deeds, but always find something negative to say. If you don't have anything good to talk about other people, keep your mouth zipped!
Dek choy une fois pour $111.05 ?
c'est trop cher !
I read it that mysterious patron left a large $$ "Tips for Jesus" is Jack Selby, a former PayPal executive.
10:32 AM
First off, Buddhism is not a religion like Christianity. It is a philosophy and a philosophy of life and of death.
As such, Buddhism advocates non material tangbles, that's why Buddhist monks live on donations from followers.
Christian entities and churches own and operate various enterprises to gain money and material things, in addition to receiving tax free donations made possible by tax credits.
Some Christian organizations use money, foods, clothings and medicine to sell Christianity to the poors.
You must understand the difference.
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